Rishi Sunak: Schluss mit nutzlosen Studien
Morgen (10. September 2023) geht es im bto-Podcast um Bildung. Nicht nur in Deutschland, auch anderswo wird darüber diskutiert. In Großbritannien deutet sich ein wichtiger Kurswechsel an. Am 17. Juli dieses Jahres hat der britische Premierminister Rishi Sunak in einem Gastbeitrag für den Telegraph die Flut an unnützen Studien in Großbritannien kritisiert. Dort ist unter anderem zu lesen:
- „I want to build a better future for our children and grandchildren – a future they can look forward to with hope and optimism. And there’s no more powerful way of doing that than helping them acquire the skills to succeed. That’s why education is so important to me. And it’s why this Government is so focused on creating high-quality opportunities for all our children and young people.“ – bto: So weit kann man es für typisches Politikergerede halten, allerdings macht hier immerhin der Premier Aussagen zur Bildung.
- „We’re making real progress. Eighty-nine per cent of schools are now Good or Outstanding, up from 68 per cent in 2010. We’ve climbed the international league tables on literacy and are now best in the West for reading. And my campaign to transform our national approach to maths is designed to drive the same kind of progress on numeracy by building on existing reforms, because so many of the jobs our children aspire to do are going to depend on their quantitative and analytical skills.“ – bto: Ich habe noch keinen Kanzler gehört, der sich so klar an internationalen Leistungsvergleichen ausrichtet.
- „Too many of our young people are sold a false dream of going to university only to find they’re enrolled on low-quality courses that don’t offer the skills they need to get a decent job at the end of it. Contrast that with apprenticeships or other vocational routes. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, one in five graduates in this country, about 70,000 every year, would be better off financially if they had not gone to university. And despite having studied for several years, one in three graduates are in a job that doesn’t require them to be degree-educated.“ – bto: Ich kenne keine Studien zu Deutschland, meine Erwartung wäre aber, dass es ähnlich ist. Und das aus gutem Grund. Viele studieren unnötige Fächer an zweitklassigen Hochschulen, um dann Arbeiten nachzugehen, die das eigentlich nicht erfordern – und sind dann unzufrieden.
- „Put simply: our young people are being ripped off. They’re being saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt from bad degrees that just leave them poorer, and dissuaded from pursuing more vocational options because they are led to believe that university is the only route to success. It’s not fair on them – and it’s not fair on you as taxpayers, forced to pick up a big chunk of the bill despite getting nothing back for our economy.“ – bto: Jetzt ist es bei uns umsonst, aber damit sind die Kosten nur versteckt. Denn wir alle bezahlen dafür.
- „First, we’ll address rip-off courses which are letting our young people down. We’ll limit the number of students that a university can recruit to a course if it’s not delivering good outcomes. We’ll change how we assess the quality of university courses so that students and parents can easily compare their earnings potential. And we’ll reduce the maximum fee that universities can charge for classroom-based foundation year courses which research shows have limited impact on students’ prospects.“ – bto: Das Einkommenspotenzial wird bei uns nicht transparent gemacht. Ohnehin findet eine solche Kalkulation höchstens implizit statt.
- „But second, we also need to change our national mindset about the value of apprenticeships and vocational qualifications – and the opportunities to pursue them. It’s profoundly wrong that we have a long-standing cultural bias against practical, vocational training. What matters is getting the skills they need for the jobs they aspire to without being saddled with debt for years – and very often it’s an apprenticeship that can do this.“ – bto: Jetzt kann man sagen, dass das in Deutschland nicht das Problem ist, weil wir ja die duale Ausbildung haben, während UK das gar nicht kennt. Wir entwickeln uns aber in hoher Geschwindigkeit in diese Richtung.
- „These steps are just the beginning of the deeper cultural change we need. We’ll always be proud of our world-class universities – but we should have the same aspirations for world-class apprenticeships and vocational training too. Education and skills are the closest thing there is to a silver bullet. It’s the best social policy, the best economic policy and the best moral policy. And it’s the best way to build a better future for our children and grandchildren – that’s why I’m determined to deliver it.“ – bto: Ob er das erreichen wird, weiß ich nicht. Inhaltlich hat er aber recht.
